| Abstract: |
Papers from the London symposium, 1973. John Collis' first paper (pp 1-11) postulates a downgrading in the status and value of potin coins in 1st century BC. His second (173-83 + 273) seeks a way to make coin interpretations more useful to archaeologists, offering seriation as the most promising approach, but stressing the need for much more careful excavation of coins and asking for more data on chance losses. A S Robertson (12-36) gives a full treatment of the numismatic, archaeological and historical significance of RB coin hoards. John Casey (37-51) clarifies the economic and political factors, so often overlooked, which govern the rate of site losses. Peter Curnow (52-63) stresses the importance of inter-site comparisons when studying small sites, because coin-loss patterns may be either similar or complementary and each must be understood in its context. Richard Reece's first paper (64-77) on coins of Britain, France and Italy introduces a new method of simple clustering which throws up anomalies in coin-loss patterns both within regions and across regional boundaries; these anomalies can then be further investigated. His second paper (78-94) analyses the patterns shown by samples of three different types of RB hoard. George Boon (95-171) discusses and accounts for counterfeiting in RB, both endemic (casts, struck copies, plated coins) and epidemic. J P C Kent (184-200) discusses general problems of interpretation, e.g. the infinite variety of hoard structure, illustrated by examples from Roman to modern times. S E Rigold (201-5) considers AS coins in burials, while D M Metcalf (206-23) interprets 7th and 8th century coin distributions in terms of severe fluctuations in the availability of currency, and relates this to international trade. M Dolley (224-33) pleads for a new approach to publishing excavated coins, relates some cautionary tales, and asks for much closer cooperation generally between archaeologist and numismatist. Marion Archibald (234-71) contributes a detailed paper on English medieva coins as dating evidence, stressing the problems of providing close dates for archaeological use. |
